The Scar of Shame. 1926. Directed by Frank Perugini.

(3/12/00)

I like Scar of Shame a lot. It is a vivid depiction of negro life in the 1920s. I really feel that--the melodrama aside--I am seeing black life the way it really was. So the film is definitely convincing.

I really liked the outdoor scenes in this film which convey a nice sense of place. They unfortunately don't have the same texture as the interior scenes and that is a little jarring, but that is a very minor complaint. (It's really a little much to expect in a low-budget film.)

I really like the acting as well. They are all good performers and they work harmoniously together. And my appreciation for them has grown over several viewings. Harry Henderson is good as are Lucia Lynn Moses and Lawrence Chenault.

It's a melodramatic story about a girl who is abused by her father. A musician intervenes and later marries her, but doesn't tell her mother who is concerned about "caste." There is another fight and she is shot by the villain, but blames her husband who goes to jail. He escapes and starts a new life, but his wife finds out and wants him back. Failing, she poisons herself after writing a letter in which she admits the truth.

The ending is trite, but Lucia Lynn Moses goes a long way towards bringing it off. We really don't get to know her too well during most of the film: at first she is just a victim and then she is angry at her husband because he won't tell his mother of his marriage. She seems like a bitch who would senjd her husband to prison for a crime he didn't commit, but then we see that she really loved this man. It is really quite touching.

The real problem I see with the ending is that she leaves her associate Eddie a note asking him to clear the husband's name. It says something like, "If you want to make peace with your maker..." Eddie tears up the note and I don't see any reason to believe that hye is going to do anything. The woman's letter to Henderson's future father-in-law could be taken as something which will clear him, but it is so vague that I wouldn't depend on that.

There are some nice touches in this picture. Early on, Moses imagines herself living a life of luxury. Later, when she is mistress of the Club Lido things resemble her fantasy pretty clearly. She has a cute little doll and when she and Henderson are arguing about whether she should go with him to see his mother he accidentally steps on the doll. Maybe it isn't subtle, but it somehow works in this film.

One thing I particularly like is when Henderson proposes marriage. There are a few closeups of his hand on her shoulder--skin against skin--which clearly communicates (to me, at least) that he wants her. He doesn't marry her out of pity or to protect her from her step-father, as she thinks, but for sex. That's one touch that actually is subtle.

I also like the scene in which Eddie tempts the girl's step-father with whiskey, holding the flask under his nose. That is a cruel moment and it is played well.

The backgrounds of the intertitles are quite handsome. Speaking of the intertitles, there are two which amount to a kind of sermonizing. Henderson makes a speech about the indignities that women of his race ares subjected to and Chenault makes a speech later on about environment and how people should be subjected to higher aims, etc. These speeches sound a little bit cloying to me, but I imagine that they weren't to the original (and intended) audience.